Why Should We Care About Local Link Building?

David Mihm’s Local Search Ranking factors, 2012

Earlier this year David Mihm released the 2012 edition of his annual local search ranking factors. Because I spend about half of my life on local optimization, I refer to this bible of local search on an almost daily basis. According to the bible, there are several reasons you should care about local link building:

#5 off-site local ranking factor: Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Domain

#6 off-site local rankings factor: Quantity of Inbound Links to Domain from Locally-Relevant Domains

#8 off-site local ranking factor: Quality/Authority of Inbound Links to Places Landing Page URL

#1 on-site local ranking factor: Domain authority

The Venice Update Has Changed Search by Localizing Organic Search Results

If you work with local businesses, you have seen first-hand the impact of the localized universal results that Mike Ramsey covered in his post on the Venice update. If you can build a solid local link profile, you can rank organically for universal search terms with local intent in your vertical.

For more on this, check out this great post from David Towers on how localized organic search results have fundamentally change your SEO KPIs.

What Kind of Links Do We Want for Local Success?

We want links that our competitors won’t get. With the exception of the first, the tactics below will result in links, not that your competitors can’t get, but ones that they almost certainly won’t go get.

We want authority links from locally relevant domains. Local blogs, non-profits, review sites, university sites, are all good examples of the kind of sites we want links from. If there is a location in the domain, we want a link from there.

Now, Let’s Go Get ‘Em.

Before the storm of "SPAMMER!" comments rain down, please do not take what follows to mean that you should comment spam the crap out of every blog with a location in the domain, and a topic related to your industry. The idea here is to get involved in the online discussions that local communities are having about your industry, and make positive contributions. Rand details how to be effective, without being spammy, at comment marketing in this Whiteboard Friday.

From a local-specific ranking perspective, here’s what you want to do:

First, make a list of “location + keywords” you are targeting.

Then, hop on Google Blog Search and search for local blogs that discuss topics related to your keywords .

Example search queries:

• inurl:location "keyword"
• inurl:location "keyword" comment

Find a few blogs that you think have valuable content, blogs that you should actually be reading because they are relevant to your industry and your business.

Next, read some posts, and if you have something to add, leave comments.

Finally, link to different places on different posts, including:

• Your Root domain
• Google+ Local landing page URL
• Google+ Local Business page

*Thanks to the author of The Really Easy SEO Link Building Strategy For Startups for sparking this idea.

I have found that the success rate for guest post outreach on very local, very niche blogs is higher than average guest post outreach, especially if you are actually a local. Here’s what you do:

First, make a list of “location + keywords” you are targeting

Again, hop on Google Blog Search and search for local blogs that discuss topics related to your keywords. If you aren’t finding blogs that accept guest posting and are also specific to your niche, try just searching location:

• inurl:location “guest post”

Gather a few good prospects and then send them an awesome outreach email.

Once they accept you as a guest author, give them a phenomenal piece of content, and get those links (as mentioned above) in your byline.

BONUS TIP: Also, try to put your business Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP) in the post if the webmaster will allow it. This is called an unstructured citation. Quality/authority of unstructured citations is an influential off-site local ranking factor.

*Keep in mind that, depending on your industry, your competitors probably aren’t doing anything this advanced for their local optimization, so unlike traditional link building for organic rankings, you don’t need hundreds of these links. Start out with one or two and measure your results.

Local businesses are always looking for testimonials and reviews of their products and services. Undoubtedly, there are local businesses whose products and services you use and love! Here’s how to turn that into links:

You have a dentist don’t you? How about a mechanic? A favorite local web host? They have websites.

Offer-up glowing reviews of their products and services on the condition that they link to your site. Can you say win-win.

Note: Don't sacrifice your true feelings about a company just to get links. If you wouldn't offer a positive testimonial if you weren't going to get a link in return, don't just make-up some B.S. Choose the companies that you truly believe in and love, and offer these testimonials only to those companies. 

BONUS TIP: Links from domains with location-specific words in their domain, i.e. “denverdestist.com” will go the furthest for your local rankings.

This one is my absolute favorite, because I love win-win’s. Here’s what you do:

First, come up with a scholarship. In my experience, the primary things that you need to define with regards to your scholarship are:

• Description of the scholarship
• Criteria (who can apply)
• Award amount
• Contest guidelines (if it is a contest)
• How to apply
• Deadline

Once you've come up with an awesome scholarship idea, add a page to your site detailing your scholarship (Here is an example from our site).

Next, perform a search to find universities and High Schools in your City/State who list general scholarships on their website: Example: inurl:.edu “outside scholarships” “Colorado”

Then, reach out to the schools you find and tell them about your scholarship. Ask them to list it on their site so that their students can find it and apply.

The result will be very high quality, high authority, and locally relevant links pointing at your scholarship page. Now, place “location + keyword” anchor text links on that powerful page pointing to:

• Your G+ Local Landing Page URL
• Your G+ Local Page

BONUS TIP: I normally don't recommend using press releases as a link/citation building method because they are largely ineffective, and usually full of garbage, but when you actually have something newsworthy to announce, like a scholarship, take advantage! Have a professional writer write a press release announcing the scholarship. Be sure to include all of your local links, along with your NAP. You can also link to some of the external pages that you scholarship link appears on.

*Thanks to Nick Bernard and his post on the Portent blog for this idea.

College kids need money for their clubs. You need authority links from local websites. Win-win. Here's what you do:

Search for clubs that you’d like to sponsor, at colleges in your area. You can use a search query like these:

• inurl:.edu "student organizations" denver
• inurl:.edu "sponsors" denver

Another search option is to simply visit university websites, and the list of student organizations typically aren’t hard to find.

Most groups you will find actually have their own website, and a lot of times it is a subdomain of the University’s.

Find one or two that you would like to sponsor (and that also link to their sponsors from their website), and give them some dough! In my experience, these kind of sponsorship links can be had for anywhere between a $150-$300 donation.

Links to your root domain will be great with this tactic.

Final Thoughts

All of these link building tactics will best serve your local SEO efforts if you are sure to keep in mind the following:

1. In everything you do, add value to the community by being engaged and thorough.
2. There are three primary places you want to link to, and you want to switch it up. Those are: Your root domain; your G+ Local landing page URL; and your G+ Local page
3. Whenever possible, you want to have your links anchored in “location + keyword” anchor text. This will help maximize the positive impact of each link, particularly for localized organic search results.